Chicago Fire Vs San Jose Earthquakes: 3 key moments
By Ivan Ornelas
Cristian Espinoza produces
In the second half, with the Fire tiring and the San Jose Earthquakes dominating possession, momentum started to build.
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Eventually, as they pushed hard to find the breakthrough, a nice sequence of passing culminated with Jackson Yueill picking out Cristian Espinoza, who operated in a pocket of space and finished beautifully to open the scoring.
Despite Espinoza’s talent, this is just his third MLS goal since coming on loan from Villarreal last year. It is his first since April 2019. Matias Almeyda saw enough to make the loan move permanent. Espinoza is certainly one of the more talented players in the Earthquakes squad, but his production in the final third has always been lacking, especially in the goalscoring department.
This has been the story regarding San Jose and Almeyda. They often control matches thanks to their exhaustive high press but lack the elite quality to open defences up in the final third. On this occasion, though, Espinoza delivered, and from that point on, San Jose coasted to the victory.